Behöver du företag på sociala medier eller behöver företagen dig? : En studie om kunders behov av företag på sociala medier och påverkan på relationer

Sammanfattning: Social medias impact recent years has been huge and an increasing number of companies have started using the services. The benefits for companies to be available thru social media are many and the costs are low. Social media makes it easier for companies to get in touch with their customers and at the same time they reach out to a lot of people since the number of frequent user’s constantly increase. A major part of the information that is available is seen from a company’s perspective and what benefits they can take advantage of thru social media. When the customer is the eventual goal and the one the company wants to reach out to in the end, we feel that it is important to examine the customers view and make recommendations to the company from that.   The purpose of the study is to investigate customers need to be able to find companies on social media. We describe, analyze and explain customers use of companies pages in social media. We also examine if customers relationship to the company is affected by the use of social media.   To reflect the customer’s perception of social media the study is seen from customer’s perspective. We have conducted a quantitative study by a survey in three different groups (high school students, university students and workers) to analyze the different needs and perceptions between the three groups. The study is conducted atUmeåUniversity, a high school and in central Umeå. As a basis for the work the study is based on theories with roots in social media, such as service logic, word of mouth, CRM/eCRM and relationship marketing with elements such as communication/interaction, commitment and loyalty.   We present our findings in the empirical and analytical chapter in which we use averages, frequency tables and anovatest to produce statistically significant differences between the three groups. The differences are then later discussed in detail in our analysis where we compare our findings with the theoretical framework. We also show the connection between our study and previous research at the same time we also discuss reasons for the differences.   Our study shows that the respondents don’t see a need for companies to exist on the social media even if they see some benefits in the service, particularly in terms of accessibility. Company’s pages on social media are particularly useful for taking part of the company’s offers and information, and to some extent, also to enjoy other consumer’s opinions. Through our study we can describe to what level our respondents is affected from other consumers comments social media has potential to create and improve the relationship but are not completely met when faults in communication/interaction, commitment and loyalty are detected.